HALIFAX and TORONTO – Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly hosted the second and third of six in-person discussions on Canada’s cultural and creative industries this week in Halifax on Tuesday and in Toronto Wednesday.
Dozens of professionals from the TV, radio, film, art and printed word industries gathered to talk about Canadian Content in a Digital World, as the federal government seeks input on how best to strengthen Canadian content creation, discovery and export in a digital world and to examine our current cultural policies and laws
Canadians are encouraged to join the conversation and take part in the discussions at any…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Six home-improvement companies have been fined $420,000 for making non-compliant telemarketing calls to Canadians, the CRTC said Tuesday.
Spurred by complaints, the Commission said that an investigation by its chief compliance and enforcement officer found that the companies called Canadians whose numbers were registered on the national Do Not Call List (DNCL). In addition, certain companies had failed to register with or subscribe to the national DNCL, made calls to Canadians during restricted hours, and used inaccurate versions of the list.
The companies and the penalties are:
– Just Energy Corp.: $240,000
– Green Planet Home Services Inc.: $90,000
– 4140800 Canada…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has upheld an $18,000 fine against a Toronto-area restoration business over violations to Canada's telemarketing rules.
Robert Gendron, carrying on business as Dynique Restoration and Victorian Restoration, was ordered to pay administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) for 18 violations at $1,000 per violation, for a total amount of $18,000.
The Commission said that it issued a notice of violation to Gendron on November 30, 2015 after investigating telemarketing complaints between December 4, 2013 and February 13, 2015 for initiating telemarketing telecommunications to consumers whose numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) while he (i) was…
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MONTREAL – Videotron, Bell and Cogeco were quick to jump on the CRTC-commissioned broadband report that determined that Internet service providers (ISPs) largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds.
In a statement, Videotron noted that the report found that its actual download speeds averaged 106% of its advertised speeds between March 15 – April 14, 2016, when the data was collected, and upload speeds were 103% of the advertised speeds.
"Videotron has been an Internet trailblazer: we were pioneers more than 20 years ago and were among the first to offer high-speed service in Québec. Year after year,…
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GATINEAU – The full results of a first-of-its-kind independent, national study on broadband performance in Canada shows that Internet service providers (ISPs) largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds.
Participating ISPs in the survey (announced last year and for which preliminary results were made public in the spring), conducted by SamKnows and which was commissioned by the CRTC, included all the main wireline service providers in Canada, with the exception of Sasktel, which declined to participate, said the CRTC in a press release this afternoon.
The data collected will…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking for feedback on its plan to merge regulations for specialty and pay television services into a single set of regulations, to be known as the Discretionary Services Regulations.
Currently, the Pay Television Regulations, 1990 and the Specialty Services Regulations, 1990 govern discretionary services. The Commission’s proposal, which stems from the Let's Talk TV proceeding, suggests streamlining the licensing of programming services into three broad categories:
– television services (over-the-air conventional and community television stations and provincial educational services);
– discretionary services (all pay and specialty services); and
– on-demand services (pay-per-view and video-on-demand services).
“The Commission considers that…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is warning customers of Téliphone Navigata Westel Communications (TNW) that they may lose phone and Internet service in November as a result of a commercial dispute between TNW and Telus.
The Commission issued a public consumer alert Thursday, after determining that Telus may initiate service disconnection beginning November 21, 2016. Telus, which provides underlying carrier service to TNW, advised the CRTC in June that it had given notice to terminate services as a result of payment issues with TNW.
Headquartered in Vancouver, the independent facilities-based CLEC provides Internet, phone and television services to customers across Canada. According…
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GATINEAU – Canadians may now use an interactive map to find out which TV service providers plus radio and TV stations distribute emergency alert messages.
The CRTC unveiled the interactive map Thursday, noting that “the vast majority” of Canadians are able to receive the alerts due to the participation of broadcasters and television service providers in the National Public Alerting System (NPAS).
Emergency alert messages are issued by emergency management officials such as fire marshals, police officers and government departments like Environment Canada to warn the public of imminent threats like severe weather, water contamination, forest fires and Amber…
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GATINEAU – Consumers’ associations say the CRTC must ensure broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) do a better job of promoting the availability of a small entry level package as well as explaining it more clearly to interested customers.
In final submissions filed last week, the Consumers’ Association of Canada and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (CAC-PIAC) and the Union des consommateurs tell the Commission certain information on entry level packages is lacking or unclear and that BDUs should put skinny basic at the forefront of their promotional activities.
CAC-PIAC believe the rules around the promotion of the skinny basic package should be…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications and Videotron must go back to the drawing board for parts of their respective disaggregated wholesale broadband offerings after the CRTC said Wednesday that while some of their head-ends meet the criteria, others do not.
Telecom Decision 2016-379 comes after a proceeding to determine if Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Rogers and Videotron's proposed network configurations comprise of access facilities as laid out Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 (the wholesale broadband ruling). That ruling determined that while wholesale broadband access would still be mandated, it would only be available in a disaggregated model going forward, meaning that no…
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